Fly By Night furniture store in Northampton has continued to grow since it was first founded in Amherst

Photo by Diane Lederman / The Republican Richard Zafft, co-owner of Fly By Night in Northampton, stands in one of his bedroom showrooms.

NORTHAMPTON – Richard Zafft calls himself a “bootstrap entrepreneur.”

He got his start on North Pleasant Street in Amherst in 1988 with a $35 permit selling futons on the street.

Today, he’s co-owner, president and founder of Fly By Night and settled into a spacious expanded showroom right off Main Street in this city’s trendy downtown.

The Amherst College graduate says he never set out to be a furniture store owner. After studying anthropology, he traveled the world for several years.

“I didn’t want to work for any corporation,” he said in a recent interview. But one thing led to another, and that led to a 22,000-square-foot store on State Street where futons are now just a fraction of what the business sells.

“I’m a grandfather of futons,” he said. He was in on the trend of futons as it was beginning.

Zafft had been working for Good Night Bedding when he started his street business. Back then, he recalled, there were seven futon stores in the area.

“I couldn’t think of (selling) something that was less damaging to society and the world,” he said. “It was a populist product,” made from harvested wood, and, he added, everyone needed a bed.

From there he set up shop in a basement location and then moved to what began as a 4,500-square-foot shop on State Street. In 2002, he built a 20,000-square-foot warehouse in Easthampton and in 2007 the new showroom was completed.

He calls it “failing upwards.”

“It’s not what I set out to do,” Zafft said. But “(it) was working, so I didn’t stop.”

The store sells children’s furniture, upholstered furniture, as well as living room, bedroom, dining, kitchen and office furniture and naturally made mattresses.

“Our goal is to sell furniture made in North America and Canada. I like to support regional (businesses).”

And, he believes, the furniture is well made. “Our life is surrounded by poor quality goods that are not meant to last,” he said. “I can look at something (and see) the care and the energy that surround the manufacturing of that piece.”

Well made doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be expensive, Zafft added. He said he works with small manufacturers and has been able to help design products for them as well.

His favorite item in the store is a slatted wood platform bed frame for $219. “You don’t have to be rich to own something real and nice,” Zafft said.

The furniture side of the business grew after Zafft’s collaboration with Gary Graham, who had worked at another furniture store and became co-owner. Zafft credits Graham with having “turned the little store into a furniture store” and with helping improve customer service. “He taught me how to treat people properly,” Zafft said.

Still, Graham is the behind-the-scenes person, Zafft said, while he is the public face.

They tend to complement each other well; while Zafft loves wood, Graham loves color and fabric. “He loves the beauty, I love the function.”

They expanded out of self-preservation, according to Zafft. “We needed to get to a certain size,” he explained of their effort to position their business so it would keep other shops from coming to the area to compete.

Today, they focus on improving what they have. “We don’t have any plans to open a second store,” he said. “We want to run our own business better.”

With a two-truck fleet, the business delivers from southern Vermont to northern Connecticut.

While business slowed during the recession, Fly by Night didn’t have any debt to worry about, according to Zafft. “The slow economy gave us time to look in the mirror (to see) who we were, and who we wanted to be,” he said.

The name of the business dates back to his Amherst days when someone suggested he had a “fly-by-night” operation that could be here one day and gone tomorrow.

The name – like the business – stuck, though, and Zafft said it works; in fact, he says he still garners comments about it at trade shows.